Addition: Warner Blu-ray - January 2010':  I was sure my eyes were playing tricks on me as I thought I could identify differences in the screen captures between both Blu-ray editions. BUT my technical software has told us that they are the exact same disc. Since utilizing some more accurate software I actually re-did the original Blu-ray captures and despite my eyes turning square - I find no differences at all in the 2 transfers. My batch process, with no cropping of the 1.78 image, created the exact same file sizes for the old captures as the new. So being the same disc (as discussed below) we get the same audio/video and same supplements (commentaries etc.) on the feature Blu-ray.

What we do get 'new' to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Scorsese's film is the packaging of a gorgeous 32-page Digi-book with color photos, bios, short essays etc. plus a second disc DVD with Public Enemies: The Golden Age of the Gangster Film and 4 cartoons. It is the same 1-hour 45-minute documentary found on the Warner Gangsters Collection Volume 4 (reviewed HERE). Described on the Warner site as - As popular as these films were in their heyday, seminal giants like Little Caesar and Public Enemy as well as post-war gems like Key Largo and White Heat still hold power over their audiences today. Public Enemies: The Golden Age of the Gangster Film will explore the invention and development of the crime genre; the rise of Warner stars like Cagney, Bogart and Robinson; as well as directors like Walsh, Wellman and Curtiz. It will cover the films themselves and the influence they had on filmmakers all over the world; and the artistic merit that these defining classic films still warrant. Finally, the documentary will celebrate the impact that Warner Bros. Studios had in establishing the iconic Hollywood Gangster, often imitated but never equaled. As we stated there: "The disc is a solid documentary, narrated by Alec Baldwin with people like Martin Scorsese giving input. I loved it - lots of clips and interesting participants. I appreciated the occasional specific focus on directors as well as the actors (like Cagney)."

The documentary, Digi-pack book and 30-minutes worth of cartoons (I Like Mountain Music, She Was an Acrobat’s Daughter, Rockateer Rabbit and Bugs and Thugs - the quality is excellent for SD-DVD) are a nice touch. I'd still like to see dual-layering of the almost 2.5-hour film and with HD audio but that isn't it the cards right now. The film remains strongly recommended!

- Gary Tooze

***

Addition: Warner Blu-ray - August 09':  We've watched a lot of Blu-rays now and this, being on of the early new format discs (Jan. 2007), is somewhat underwhelming. While it shows less digital noise than the DVD editions - it still exhibits some, as well as speckles, via the single-layered VC-1 encoding.  This 1080P visuals never seem to showcase the depth of some other transfers from the same time. I don't think there is any doubt that it improves substantially over the Special Edition DVD (and the, comparatively ineffectual, 97' flipper) and perhaps  more stunning image quality won't exist to a higher degree than this although I'd love to compare an MPEG-4 AVC dual-layered appearance to be more satisfied.

The sound on Blu-ray gets no audible advancement although the 640Kpbs sounds quite efficient with an adept mix promoting a few viable separations seemingly inherent in the film track. As adopters of this new format are very aware though - HD lossless audio can be one of the biggest pluses for Blu-ray presentations. Unfortunately, Warner have not taken advantage of this with this Goodfellas release. Like the DVD releases this Blu-ray offers optional English, French and Spanish subtitles. My Momitsu has identified it as being a region FREE disc playable on Blu-ray machines worldwide.

Extras mimic the SE DVD starting with the first commentary, recorded in segments - by Scorsese, Liotta, Lorraine Bracco, Paul Sorvino, Frank Vincent, producers Irwin Winkler and Barbara De Fina, screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi, the film's cinematographer Michael Ballhaus and editor Thelma Schoonmaker. It has some excellent moments and like the second, with Henry Hill and FBI agent Edward McDonald, is VERY much worth listening to. I also enjoyed the half-hour 'Getting Made' documentary although it does tend to repeat some of the discussion in the first commentary. There are a few more tidbits although nothing overly notable but there is some bonus to having them accessible on one disc.

1) Warner - Region 1 - NTSC - TOP